Magical 200 fps on FS100

[Arunas Eimulis]

I'm a big fan on using slow motion in my videos, you can create magic out of nothing:) And i found out that you can use 200 fps smooth slow record on fs100 for SD TV or 720p web delivery if you avoid aliasing using good old dslr shooting techniques.

Here you can see me using it in an ad for a Lithuanian NBA player social foundation:

Linas Kleiza social foundation - Linas Kleiza on Vimeo

the first chess shot and two ballet dancer shots in the ending, you cannot get this beauty any other way. And it works very well with remained sharp HD footage.

It would be so great to get half smooth slow record speed, 100 fps in 2x better resolution.
Do you think it's possible with feature fs100 updates?

[Chris Quevedo]

how is this possible?! i can't find anywhere that says this thing does slow-mo in lower Res.

so that was 720p res at 200fps?! how in the world does no review i've ever read mention this?!

[Chris Quevedo]

ok, there must be a mistake you must be referring to the FS700 because i just went thru the manual and searching for 200fps shooting even at lower resolutions. i'm confused can u please clarify this?

[Chris Quevedo]

can someone please confirm? have i been wrong all this time but this camera had this feature all along? Arunas, can you tell make another video with this? i'm still baffled that i never have heard of this before.

[Arunas Eimulis]

Yes, fs100 has it, its called "smooth slow rec". fs700 has much higher freme rates. This feature is not promoted too much. In fact many sony cameras has this feature, even some old ones.
there's another example:

Linas Kleiza social foundation - Ilja Laurs on Vimeo

if only sony made 100fps in higher resolution in firmware update, this feature would more usable.

[Kyle Root]

Nice.

My Sony NX5U does this as well.

I have started using it frequently at weddings to get that "WOW" factor. All it takes is 3 or 4 of those to really add to a project.

[Bill Pryor]

The FS100 does 60 fps and those shots looked like 60 fps slomo to me. The FS700 does 240 fps.

[Matt Davis]

There's a bit about the Smooth Slow Rec mode here (you may need to register):

NEX-FS100 In depth -Part 4: Bending Time : Sony Professional

It uses interlace to 'double' the double frame rate (so for 25fps, it does an interlaced 50fps) and you can apply something like Twixtor on the *de-interlaced* result (note the interlaced chicken).

As it's actually a bit of a cheat, the resolution isn't very good, and deinterlacing takes it down further. It was great when the FS100 was the only game in town, but if you're really into budget slomo, the FS700 is king.

Personally, I stuck to the S&Q mode and used Kronos/Twixtor plug-ins if I needed to go slower.

[Chris Quevedo]

Originally Posted by Arunas Eimulis

I'm a big fan on using slow motion in my videos, you can create magic out of nothing:) And i found out that you can use 200 fps smooth slow record on fs100 for SD TV or 720p web delivery if you avoid aliasing using good old dslr shooting techniques.

Here you can see me using it in an ad for a Lithuanian NBA player social foundation:
Linas Kleiza social foundation - Linas Kleiza on Vimeo
the first chess shot and two ballet dancer shots in the ending, you cannot get this beauty any other way. And it works very well with remained sharp HD footage.

It would be so great to get half smooth slow record speed, 100 fps in 2x better resolution.
Do you think it's possible with feature fs100 updates?

its not 200, its 120fps. the manual says the S&Q function will not work with SD resolutions so i say you are bluffing. it says it will only do 120fps at 1080i

[Chris Quevedo]

yea know what, i apologize, i was probably wrong

[Matt Davis]

No worries... something from the archives:

FS100 In Depth - Part 4: Bending Time (v) on Vimeo

LOL

[Chris Quevedo]

exactly! thats what i was watching too! uh... stupid question but does anyone have a reliable workflow for how to process this type of footage? maybe best practices or something?

[Matt Davis]

Well the first thing is to ascertain whether your slomo footage is needed in 1080, 720 or SD. SD will take the FS100 Super Slow Motion happily and make it look good. 720 - you can get away with it for the occasional corporate shoot. 1080? Nope. Looks blurry and false. Better off taking the 1080p50/60 and treating that (as I did for the waves).

In general, you take your superslomo footage clips, deinterlace them and apply your chosen slomo plugin be it Kronos from The Foundry (in my example), Twixtor (market leader) or the built-in time benders in FCPX etc (not exactly the best but may work).

Most time bending plug-ins work on a frame by frame morph. Fast moving hard lines don't work well and look decidedly false when processed. Blocks of detail with a bit of blur around them work very well. The more expensive plug-ins do a better job of where to morph and how. The FCPX filter is 'good enough' for some jobs but unfortunately Twixtor still rules in this market.

[Chris Quevedo]

its so ironic, i was just watching the videos you made on the Sony UK site just before you posted that.
so the S&Q at 120fps (or is it 100fps) works at 720p and 1080p but sacrifices quality, eh?
i normally use MPEGStream Clip for deinterlacing footage. would this be a reliable method or is there better out there? i'm an adobe user so not sure if Premiere, After Affects or Media Encoder could do it

[Matt Davis]

Well, as you can see, the main thing is to de-interlace before it hits the effects stack.

The way this mode works is by buffering up and downsampling. You're basically getting SD out of the Smooth Slow Motion modes, but the extra kick is the interlacing. So you have to shave 25% off the resolution for that alone.

It's a neat trick for videographers needing the occasional Slomo effect when they know it's coming up. Bride's Bouquet? Slomo. Spinny dance sequence? Slomo. Big celebratory mexican wave? Slomo. It's not real slomo, but it's better than nothing (says he as a C100 shooter).

But please - can we just roll back a bit and see where we're heading?

THE MARMALADE Identity on Vimeo

FS100 - neat party trick. FS700 - very cool and usable function. Epic - superb non-wide work. Phantom - the dog's best bits. Marmalade? Spike? Sigh. :)